Providence Journal’s Slide Continues, Parent Company Reports $21.7M 2Q Loss
GoLocalProv Business Team
Providence Journal’s Slide Continues, Parent Company Reports $21.7M 2Q Loss
New Media reported a drop in print advertising revenue — down 12.3 percent year-over-year.
The bright spot was digital revenue was $34.8 million, an increase of 9 percent over the prior year, but not nearly enough to make up for the print loss. Circulation revenue was flat.
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Top Story Removed - Unprecedented
A lead top story in the Providence Journal this week was removed because of errors. Alan Rosenberg, executive editor of the Providence Journal wrote:
A story in Tuesday’s Journal, describing the confrontation between Acting North Providence Police Chief Christopher Pelagio and a Cranston police sergeant at a memorial service, was based on the account of Carmine Giarusso, a retired Cranston police officer who was at the memorial service. Giarusso told The Journal that he had been interviewed as part of the investigation, and was granted anonymity in the story.
On Tuesday, Giarusso said he had left the service before the confrontation, that his description was based on a video he had seen, and that he had not been interviewed for the investigation. Additionally, Col. Michael Winquist, the Cranston police chief, said Tuesday that he had not called North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi about the investigation, as Giarusso told The Journal.
The Journal no longer stands behind Tuesday’s story, which we have removed from our website.
Trudeau Story Drew Criticism From National Press
All of this come just two weeks after the paper was criticized by the national media. A front page story in the Providence Journal about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drew ridicule by national and local press for the article’s focus.
The story by Jacqueline Tempera of the Providence Journal on Trudeau - who was in town for the National Governors Association summer meeting - starts off, "Feeling blue? Google three words: Justin Trudeau butt."
Besides the front page story, there was an online video by Tempera focusing on Trudeau's looks. Scott McKay, former Providence Journal reporter wrote a blistering analysis on the faux pas and ended his comments with, “And they [Providence Journal] wonder why they are slouching toward irrelevance. Somewhere Michael Metcalf is spinning in his grave. Jim Wyman and Steve Hamblett too."
Where the Former Projo Stars Are Today
AP
Scott Mayerowitz
Airlines Reporter for Associated Press
Formerly ABC News correspondent - he is often the expert being quoted around airline strikes to plance crashes.
Photo: News Media Guild
NY Times
Dan Barry
New York Times
Barry was part of the young gun investigative group at the Journal in the early 1990s that won a Pulitzer for the investigation into Chief Justice Thomas Fay, and also investigated Cianci’s Nick Ricamo and others.
He was a Pulitzer Feature Writing finalist at the NY Times for his portfolio of "closely observed pieces that movingly capture how the great recession is changing lives and relationships in America.”
Boston Globe
Christopher Rowland
Washington Bureau Chief at the Boston Globe
He also has served as Metro political editor and as a healthcare reporter on the Business Desk.
Rowland covered Providence City Hall (among a number of assignments) during his Projo years.
LA Times (formerly)
Dean Starkman
Teaching in Hungry
Starkman previously was an editor at Columbia Journalism Review, Wall Street Journal and GoLocal. Starkman was part of the investigative team in 1994 at the Projo that won a Pulitzer.
An award-winning journalist and media critic, he is the author of 2014's “The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism.” Before leaving for Europe he was the Wall Street reporter for the LA Times.
USA Today (formerly
Tom Frank
CNN Now
Since leaving the Providence Journal, he has had stints at Long Island's Newsday and The Denver Post.
At USA Today, Frank was a 2012 Pulitzer finalist "for his sharply focused exploration of inflated pensions for state and local employees, enhancing stories with graphic material to show how state legislators pump up retirement benefits in creative but unconscionable ways."
The Weekly Standard
Philip Terzian
The Weekly Standard
Terzian is literary editor of The Weekly Standard. In the 1990's he served as the editorial page writer for the Providence Journal. In his career, he has been a writer and editor at Reuters, newspapers in Alabama and Kentucky, the New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times.
Wall Street Journal
Jennifer Levitz
Wall Street Journal
She was a pitbull State House reporter at the Providence Journal and has made a mark at the New England office of the Wall Street Journal.
She was part of the reporting team that was a Pulitzer Finalist in 2014 for a series called "Deadly Medicine," a stellar reporting project that documented the significant cancer risk to women of a common surgery and prompted a change in the prescribed medical treatment.
Washington Post
Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post
Once the State House reporter at the Providence Journal, today at the Post, Kevin is a longtime foreign correspondent who has been based in Tokyo, Mexico City and London, and also served as the Post’s Sunday and Features Editor.
He won a Pulitzer for international reporting with the Post in 2003, along with Mary Jordan, for their "exposure of horrific conditions in Mexico's criminal justice system and how they affect the daily lives of people."
NY Times
C.J. Chivers
New York Times
Pulitzer Prize winner in 2017.
Chivers is a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, where he "contributes to the Foreign and Investigative desks of The Times on conflict, politics, crime and human rights from Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Georgia, Chechnya and elsewhere on a wide range of assignments."
His assignments are far from his political coverage in Providence City Hall and the State House.
Boston Globe
Cynthia Needham
Boston Globe
Today she serves as the political editor at the Globe and oversees coverage of the State House, City Hall, and Massachusetts politics. She was a political and State House reporter at the Providence Journal.
AP
Steve Peoples
Associated Press
Peoples has become a top political reporter and the lead on Presidential coverage at the Associated Press. In 2012, he covered the Mitt Romney campaign. After he left the Providence Journal he covered politics for Roll Call and contributed to GoLocal.
Computer World
Ken Mingis
Executive Editor, News and Strategy at Computer World
Mingis has risen through the ranks at the high tech pub and has served as the Apple expert and the online editor for Computer World, which is a different world from being the lead city reporter cover Buddy Cianci in the 1990s. He was the reporter who broke the infamous DiPrete Cranston Land Deal.
